A Trial Marriage Escape

The heir of the Song family is brilliant and distinguished, born into one of the finest families of the aristocracy. Yet while betrothed, he became embroiled in a scandal in his chambers. They say the girl was merely a trial-bride servant with no family background, but the young heir repeatedly broke the rules for her, even going so far as to bring her before his betrothed, a princess. The princess despised her, so the heir sent the girl away. When the princess wanted her dead, the heir dispatched her to an estate to live out the rest of her days. Later, the Song family fell into ruin. The young maid tried to flee the capital amid the chaos, but on a dark night she was abducted and locked inside a secluded courtyard, kept as his possession. “You abandoned me. Why can’t you leave me alone?” “Jiaojiao, you’re mistaken. I haven’t finished teaching you the ways of the bedchamber. How can you simply leave?” He kept her in the back courtyard, demanding that she bear his children and love him as she once had. He became ever more domineering and lost ever deeper in obsession, frightening her all the more and driving her to spend the rest of her life trying to escape. At last, a shift in the court left him trapped in its machinations, giving her the chance to flee. She left that place of trouble and the suffocating man behind, and finally found peace. Only then did she discover she was pregnant. After the new emperor ascended the throne, a family of refugees moved onto a street in Yangzhou. It was said the head of the household had died on the road, leaving behind only his wife and their unborn child. The beautiful, gentle widow attracted unwanted attention despite her pregnancy. A scholar about to head to the capital for the civil service exams blocked her doorway and earnestly asked, “If I pass the exams, may I ask for your hand?” The woman was horrified, not by the scholar’s audacity, but by the man who had suddenly appeared at the doorway! By then, he was a Marquis of Loyalty and Valor and governor-general of two provinces. He fixed the scholar with a dark stare. “I don’t think you’ll ever pass.”